Our Purpose and About Us

Our mission is to educate and empower undergraduate students at Michigan Technological University by immersing them in the full lifecycle of space systems engineering. Through hands-on experience in the design, testing, and integration of spacecraft, we cultivate technical expertise, teamwork, and leadership. By engaging in real aerospace projects, students gain the skills and confidence necessary to contribute meaningfully to the future of space exploration and technology development.

Our vision is to solve real-world, complex challenges through innovative aerospace engineering. Partnering with organizations such as the U.S. military, NASA, and other industry leaders, we develop satellites and spacecraft with real missions and tangible purposes. We strive to advance space technology while providing students with opportunities to make meaningful contributions to national and global aerospace goals. Through our commitment to excellence, collaboration, and innovation, the Michigan Tech Aerospace Enterprise aims to inspire the next generation of engineers who will push the boundaries of what is possible in space.

Our enterprise was founded in 2002 by Dr. L. Brad King. We have had many missions since the beginning of the enterprise. Our first satellite, which we built, is named Oculus and was launched in 2019 from the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket. Oculus’s objective was to visually detect and monitor resident space objects by using imagers, as well as the ability to perform attitude maneuvers while flying over U.S. observatories to determine spacecraft altitude from unresolved ground imagery.

In 2025, we currently have four missions we are working on: Auris, Stratus, Descensus, and Connexus

Auris started in 2021 with the NS-10 requirements. The purpose of Auris is to demonstrate a low-cost platform that is capable of exploring the interference potential of GEO satellites

StratusX started 2022, whose mission is to demonstrate an inexpensive, scalable imaging of clouds to generate usable data, for validating and improving existing solar irradiation models

Descensus started in November 2024. This mission is a fast-paced, year-by-year CanSat. This mission repeats every year with a new mission and objective, going against other universities

Connexus started in January 2025. This is a server project to help the enterprise with task management, collaborative development, and lab-based testing and equipment.